Passion for the North lll➤ Piet van den Bemd

Originally I am from Breda, a lovely city in the south of the Netherlands. But this country is sickening every year, it will have to fight rising sea levels as no other country in the world. But as long as the tourists visit the tulips, the red light district in Amsterdam is crowded and they smoke the dutch cannabis, everything is okay. The real panic in Holland starts, when “winter” arrives!! The last decade they have not had a real winter back home, and I wonder when they will change the lyrics of Christmas songs and start singing about a green Christmas instead.

Talking about snow….

When I was about 7 years old my dad toke me for the first time to the high arctic. He’s a location manager and knows the world as nobody else. He was running a project in northern Scandinavia, showed me the wilderness that remained there and introduced me to dogsledding, snowmobiles, moose hunters and so much else! Now years later I often think bank to it and believe that this might have been the fundament for my love for the north!

Then about 6 years ago, I came to Andenes for the first time, and it felt amazing, absolutely great, and for the first time I really had the feeling I found a place where I could actually live.

But of course, back home, I had a girlfriend waiting for me, and I don’t believe she was really dying to move to this tiny place 350 km north of the arctic circle to join me… Anyway, I also had a kind of study to finish, so I gave it some time to see where all this would bring me. Years passed, and every year I returned to Andenes for some weeks or months. Also, I travelled to many other places in the world to see how life was there, girlfriends went and came, but during all this time I kept this little place Andenes in the back of my mind.

Let’s face it, I haven’t been a great student back at university. But living for a few years with some of the greatest guys I’ve ever met, with all of us sharing the same hobbies and passion, liking beers too much and being much more interested in things happening outside then in college, resulted in lifelong friendships, the greatest stories to tell and many amazing memories. The one thing which has always saved me is my passion, a motivation, and I hate giving up on things… so I even received a paper from university. Time to discover the big world!

I knew what I wanted, I knew where I wanted to go. Years of creating a network, getting to know some amazing people with the most incredible stories and experiences, brought me where I am today . My uncle always told me “it doesn’t matter what you know, but who you know”.

So a bit over a year ago, I officially moved to Andenes Norway 69˙ North.

Skippering rib boats doing whale watching tours, realizing peoples dreams that way, reminds me of my own first whale-encounter.

Next to that, I’m running a small photography business, “Piet van den Bemd photography”. The idea behind it is just that it will make it easier for people to find me, how I could help you with your projects in the arctic and so much more. I’m taking a consultative role and did some technical support in enabling a safe and successful film shoot of an international film crew. Location- and safety management of a team of 12 in arctic winter was a real challenge, but I simply loved doing it and the results where astonishing.

I love to get people to the right place at the right time, to get them to target species or to see things from a different perspective then others might think off. Most people might find me creative and a go-getter. To sell high quality photo prints on basically any size is a real pleasure, and I feel honored when people want to have my picture hanging on their wall.

Being in Andenes gives me so many opportunities. With wildlife in my backyard, peaky mountains, an almost unlimited amount of freedom, midsummer sun up 24/7, Northern Lights dancing above my head in winter, it feels like the sky is the limit.

But believe me, all this sounds so great, romantic and easy, but there are some days…pfffoeh it feels like living in a kind of carwash! Horizontal snowfall, incredible wind speeds and massive high breaking waves, thick gray clouds that never seem to vanish. But after storm, the sun will always shine, right?!!